Extremecarving <-----> Freeriding

[yomama]

I would like to ask you guys a few questions regarding EC/Freeriding. In the section Freeride, you wrote

"Gathering all these qualities (mobility/softness/fluidity) together allows a faster learning curve because the rider doesn't remains the "prisoner" of a unique vision of snowboarding"

Questions:
1) Are there technique (and not necessarily qualities) from freeriding that can be added to EC ? Inversely, beside the push-pull technique, are there any techniques from EC that are applicable to freeriding ?
2) Would you be making video of you guys freeriding ? I am asking you this because I have improved a so much with the SWOARD and the push-pull technique described on your website. Obviously, the wonderful videos helped quite a bit too to improve my style. Can you make a freeride video so that I can copy and learn from you as well?
3) I guess you build your own boards for freeriding. Do you use the ATC and what are the specs of your freeride boards ? Do they differ from other brands and in which way ?

Thanks

Peter

[rilliet]

Hi Peter,

1) The main characteristic of freeride style is smoothness. Soft boots create a very sensitive contact feeling to the snow. With Soft boots we can't be agressive. We have to be in total harmony with our turns otherwise the feedback we get through our feet becomes sharp.

This way of riding has a huge influence on our EC style. We try to keep this smoothness on piste too, with EC equipment. This is why our boots setup are quite soft.
Having a cool style on hard snow is anyway very efficient because it helps the board edge to stay in contact with the snow.

In opposite, EC technique gives precision and power to freeriding.
Push-pull technique is very efficient and give an wonderful contact feeling in soft snow.

2) Last year has been a powder disaster: no snow fall during more than two months.
If we get some powder this season, we will make a freeride movie.

3) Patrice uses a standard board (Wild Duck), I have a freeride prototype with the ATC Matrix. On piste, there is no comparison, but in deep powder, both boards work very well.
My board is 169 cm long, egdge length is 139cm, nose and tail width are about 30 cm wide (I don't remember precisely). The radius is 11m.

Do you think we should produce a SWOARD freeride board?

Jacques

[nils]

Well,
I'm more a Swallowtail guy, which i'm used to ride in hardboots, and usual board is 196cm with 148cm effective edge and a radius of 14 meters (progressive radius thu).
The EC rotation style helped drammatically improve my freeride/powder ability, especially on those long boards. I'd say it suits the swallowtail even better than regular freeride boards, because the swallowtail is made to be ridden normally: meaning there is no need to worry about burrying the nose like on shorter twin tips. You just stand naturally on both feet, and this way rotation turns become an amazing fun to do, especially with boards that can handle better high speeds and chopped terrain..
Might want to try building a ATC matrix Swallow jacques?

[ablazespy]

Hi,
I also want to Swallow a Swoard, that means I support Nils in his quest for a Swoard ATC Swallowtail. But than I would also like to ad a kind of board that in my eyes could benefit more from using the ATC-matrix a BOARDERCROSS-Board!!!

Jacques can you give us an overvieuw of the advantges of the ATC matrix in the following kind of boards:

Freeride------------
Swallowtail---------
Boardercross-------

Greetz Ablazespy

[jason_watkins]

Jacques:

I'm very interested in your thoughts on what makes a good freeride or all-mountain board (hardboots). I'm buying my first board for hardboots, and want it to be a "does everything" board. That means carving, moguls, jumps and off piste. Then maybe I'll get something more specialized like a swoard later to use just on piste.

The basic specs I can figure out for myself: around 170cm, 22cm wide or so, and sidecut 11-12m or so.

What I'm more curious about is flex: How stiff lengthwise, how stiff torsionally? Some people mention stiff under the bindings, but softer between bindings as good for all mountain. What shape nose and how much? Would something like the spoon nose on nil's swallowtails be worth anything?

I ride here in the NW USA, where our snow is usually wet and heavy. Sometimes slush, sometimes frozen slush .

[rilliet]

Hi guys,

I should try Nils swallowtail!
I had one (Apocalypse) years ago (about 1989), but I don't really remember how it performed and I had not the riding level I have today of course.

Jacques can you give us an overvieuw of the advantges of the ATC matrix in the following kind of boards:

Freeride: the lighter the powder is, the usless the ATC is.
So with a freeride board you will feel most of the diference on piste or quite heavy snow off piste.
Swallowtail: I have no idea. I should build a prototype to try it.
Boardercross: this is probably the kind of board that get the most of benefits of the ATC Matrix (after EC and GS boards of course). Precision in curves, stability during jump take off and landings, more speed.

Jason,
I think we should split freeride boards in two categories:
- boards that work well mostly off piste like today softboots freeride boards (that Patrice and I are riding) or swallowtails (but Nils says his SwellPanic works well on piste too...)
- boards that work well off piste and on piste like the Donek Axix seems to be.

I think you are talking about the second category.
In a spirit of hardbooting freeride I would make a kind of wider Swoard with longer nose, shorter edge length, a good tail that allows nice fakie riding.
Flex would be probably slightly softer and torsion would stay the same, but matching the flex.

Of course it should be tested and adjusted with hard and soft boots.

It is also possible that when I will have tested Nils sallowtails I will get one or make one...

Jacques

[yomama]

Jacques,

If you plan to develop a Swoard as an all moutain carving board, you have a potential customer here: ME !!!

With ATC inside, it will be the ultimate slash & burn, carve-bump & jump board !

Please keep us posted on any new developments !

Thanks!

Peter

[NateW]

I suspect that if you just add a freeride-like nose and a modestly upturned tail, you'll have a pretty good all-mountain board. You could adjust the flex to make it ride like other AM boards, but it might be better to keep the distinctive flex to distinguish Swoard's AM boards from all the others.

That is basically what I asked Coiler to do to make my last board (and another one coming early next year). They used their all-mountain 'profile' with a stiffer-than-regular-all-mountain flex and taller nose and tail (3cm & 5cm) and I was happy enough with the results that I ordered another one for this season (though the new one will be a lot narrower, just as an experiment).

[nils]

Well,
I'd say its more than prematurate to talk about a board that will in case we decide to ever design it, see birth in two seasons at best...
We've got so much work making the Extremecarver happen, get assembled and shipped that its already a challenge... We'll see when its all on the cruise control how we can manage developping another breed of board... (no worries, the Extremecarver is, and will be our flagship for its our fav board to ride anyway)

No worries you will all be noticed whenever something happens
Nils